You will likely pay more for your eggs in about five years. And no, we’re not talking about inflation’s impact on the price of food. We’re talking about a new Oregon law that just about guarantees the price of eggs will go up.
A kick in the pants to anyone planning violence or espousing hatred at this weekend’s rally in Portland.
Occasionally it is prudent to remind voters in Oregon of a few, fundamental elements regarding our access to government.
The initial news that the Chinese government would suspend all imports of U.S. agricultural goods hit farmers like a lightning bolt.
Politics and economics are colliding to put the squeeze on American farmers.
Rep. Greg Smith, R-Heppner, should get kudos for a realistic review of the state’s economic future.
Gov. Kate Brown last week signed a bill that narrows Oregon’s use of the death penalty by limiting the crimes that qualify for capital punishment.
A kick in the pants to federal and state authorities in the aftermath of the water crisis on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in Central Oregon.
No one familiar with the effort to review — and perhaps modify — the county’s charter can refute the value of the effort. For the past 19 months, the Umatilla Charter Review Committee studied …
Oregon’s Democratic leaders have struggled to react to the failure of House Bill 2020, the carbon tax bill.
Gov. Kate Brown’s disdain for rural Oregon is showing.
The depravity of humanity knows no bounds. Witness the carnage in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, this past weekend.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown on Thursday signed Senate Bill 1013, a bill that dramatically narrows who is eligible for the death penalty in this state. It was not the way to change Oregon’s death pe…
A time-honored tradition that harkens back to a simpler time, a county fair typically serves as a demarcation line between the end of summer and the start of school. Sure, students around the …
A tip of the hat to the Umatilla Electric Co-op, Pacific Power and other utilities and state legislators for recognizing the challenges faced by rural mobile home owners and their effort to wo…
“Revenge,” Oregon Gov. Kate Brown told a Politico reporter, “is a dish best served cold and slowly.”
National press reports last week indicated that new trade talks between the United States and China were to take place this week in Shanghai.
The Trump administration has been consistent in its desire to make cuts in the nation’s food stamp program, and so its most recent proposal along these lines doesn’t come as a surprise.
A Clackamas County judge has opened a gaping loophole in Oregon’s Public Records Law, and the state Court of Appeals needs to slam it shut, posthaste.
So many different issues leak from the homeless issue that it can be difficult to determine which path to solve the community challenge is the right one.
While the 2019 Oregon Legislature did pass one law aimed at bringing reason to the state’s Public Employees Retirement System, that effort must not be the end of the reform road. Too many prob…
The purchase of Hamley Steakhouse and Saloon and Hamley Western Store by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation was a fitting, and satisfactory, conclusion reached last wee…
A tip of the hat to the Umatilla County Housing Authority and their role in securing just over $8 million for a new housing development in Stanfield.
For a region that’s blessed with bountiful natural resources, the Pacific Northwest has largely missed the boat.
If Oregonians were expecting to see problems in the state’s foster care system disappear overnight, they’re in for a disappointment. As the Department of Human Services’ July report on child w…
By now most area voters know about the two efforts to recall Gov. Kate Brown and as the effort gains steam lawmakers on both sides of the aisle should take notice.
By some measurements, this year’s legislative session wasn’t a bad one for proponents of a transparent state government.
Last week it was reported that the Trump administration has decided to move the headquarters of the Bureau of Land Management from Washington, D.C., to Grand Junction, Colo.
The Oregon chapter of the AFL-CIO thinks it has a dandy idea: Limit self-checkout stands at grocery stores and Oregon will be a better place. It has filed an initiative petition with the Secre…
Nearly three years ago lawmakers on both sides of the political fence joined together and spent 18 months canvassing Oregon to seek input on a billion-dollar plan to upgrade the state’s transp…
A tip of the hat to local police agencies for stepping up time and again to make big events safer.
Bill Currier, chairman of the Oregon Republican Party, wants to recall Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat. If Brown showed contempt for limits of the state constitution by abusing her power as govern…
The incident had all the earmarks of a daring rescue. A woman fell off a cliff. A group of emergency responders just happened to be near and quickly deployed to save the day.
The 2019 legislative session will be remembered more for what it didn’t accomplish than for what it did, thanks in large measure to the two walkouts staged by Senate Republicans to block legis…
Fifty years ago the entire world turned its eyes to the heavens as astronauts from the United States landed on the moon.
The 2019 session of the Oregon Legislature was a doozy. With supermajorities in each house, Democrats didn’t have to worry about passing most tax bills, which they did with abandon.
The Pendleton Development Commission made the right decision last week when it directed its advisory committee to go back to the drawing board on a series of proposals to address city blight. …
You have to hand it to the folks at PETA — the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. They know how to get their names in the news. Whether it's trying to assert constitutional rights fo…
State government is once again supplying just what residents have come to expect from state programs devised to make Oregon green: failure.
It would be difficult to find a better example of the wise use of taxpayer dollars than the nearly complete new Pendleton Fire Station project.
The final weeks of the 2019 legislative session made for some ugly politics. In between Senate Republicans’ walkout and Democrats’ hobbling of Oregonians’ ballot-initiative power, partisan con…
No one likes to pay more taxes. Let’s face it, for most of us, the prospect of another government entity reaching into our wallets or purses for more cash is an unpleasant prospect.
Perhaps the action taken by the Senate Special Committee on Conduct against state Sen. Brian Boquist is meant only as a placeholder until an investigation into his threats against Senate Presi…
Not many will admit it, but the fact is a lot of us text while we are behind the wheel. And many more talk on the phone while driving.
Democracy shouldn’t be a spectator sport.
Secretary of State Bev Clarno’s office released its latest audit on July 3, this one on the state of cybersecurity in the Department of Administrative Services, the state’s central administrat…
The partisan excesses and political turmoil of the 2019 Oregon Legislature have been well-documented. But the now-finished legislative session also should be remembered for some good work on b…
State voters will get the final say on a couple of issues that occupied legislators this session — and it also seems likely that they’ll be called upon to pass judgment on one of the session’s…
Legislative success can often be hard to come by the, but a tip of the hat to Oregon lawmakers for approving a bill that funnels more than $1 million to the education department for FFA programs.
In the final day of the session, the Oregon Senate passed House Bill 2015, a measure that will allow illegal immigrants and other Oregonians who can’t prove their legal residence status to get…
Thousands of Oregonians gathered in front of the state Capitol last week to protest climate change bills that wouldn't help the climate but would raise the cost of gasoline, diesel fuel, elect…
Democracy can sometimes be a messy — or contentious — business.
We’ve likely all had them, maybe at least once a day — those annoying robocalls that interrupt dinner or whatever else you happen to be doing at the time. Stopping them permanently may be diff…
A tip of the hat to Rep. Brian Clem, D-Salem, and other lawmakers for the passage of House Bill 2579, one of those rare feel-good pieces of legislation that makes a real difference. Dubbed the…
Oregon’s climate bill is apparently dead this session, and Democrats in the Legislature have only themselves to blame. The bill is a mess. We can’t get weepy about it.